


The Disease

by zlmbo



Category: The Amazing World of Gumball
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Body Horror(?), Episode Related, Hanahaki Disease, Light Angst, M/M, Oneshot, does hanahaki disease fall under body horror?, hanahaki, not today though ecks dee, one day i’ll stop spamming the tawog tag with gumrob, sorta an edgy weeby aftermath of the ex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-07
Updated: 2018-11-07
Packaged: 2019-08-20 05:36:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16549919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zlmbo/pseuds/zlmbo
Summary: Gumball refuses to believe he has Hanahaki Disease, but everyone knows better, even him.





	The Disease

**Author's Note:**

> god this is sucky  
> this is an au sorta, technically not though?  
> it’s sorta also a followup to The Ex, idk
> 
> when text is in bold it represents Gumball’s thoughts

It had been about a week since the petals started showing up.  
At first they were a rarity, showing up in small bundles with the occasional cough. Small, yellow or red petals would come up, fluttering away in the wind as they were hacked up. Gumball refused to believe there was anything wrong with him. No matter what form of research his family did, even outsourcing to asking Carrie if there was any supernatural cause, it would lead to one answer – Hanahaki Disease. There couldn’t be a way he felt any kind of unrequited love. He had his girlfriend and he knew she loved him very much. But something felt… off. Ever since he and rob became nemeses again, he’d been coughing up flower petals. It had gotten to the point they’d start falling out as he spoke. He knew Rob caused this. He knew that Rob made him feel this way, but it was piled and crushed under countless layers of denial. He had almost seamlessly convinced himself he didn’t know.

* * *

 

The time was 3:35PM. Gumball had been out goofing around with Darwin – as per usual on a Saturday like this. The two had sat out on the front steps of the house and just talked about whatever until they thought of something to do. They tried their best to avoid what was happening to Gumball, even if their best was pretty bad when every couple minutes Gumball would start coughing again. The should-be joyful afternoon turned uncomfortable all too fast and all too often.  
Darwin spoke, breaking a silence between them.  
“Is… Is it someone I know? I could help you and-”  
“I’m not even sure who it is.”  
Gumball looked down at the pavement before pulling his knees up to his chest.  
“You heard what Carrie said before – the people who get this usually know who they’re in love with. You’re either in denial or you aren’t telling me who it is.”  
“I would have said something if I knew.” Gumball’s voice was shaky, he knew he was lying.  
Before either of them could say anything, Gumball started to have another coughing fit.  
Petals upon petals, gently falling to the ground in a contrast to the rough hacking and coughing coming from the small cat-boy. Catching his breath, Gumball looked over at Darwin, tears starting to form in the kitten’s eyes.  
“I want to fix this, I swear.”  
Gumball put his head in his hands as he hunched over. He started to let any flower petals left over fall from his mouth, feeling a vomitty taste left over. He could practically feel how concerned Darwin was, he didn’t even have to see his face. Standing up, Gumball began to head up the steps onto the porch.  
“I’m gonna go get a glass of water. I need to get this taste out of my mouth.”  
Gumball couldn’t stand to look at his brother. He didn’t want him to feel concerned or worried, he didn’t want any of his family to feel that way. **It’s just some stupid flower crap. It’s not a fatal case, and it will never be one.** Gumball was confident in thinking this, his know-it-all nature shining through more than ever. Lost in thought, he barely even noticed his phone going off in his pocket.  
**Fuck. It’s Penny. I don’t want her to get all worried about me too. Darwin or Carrie probably blabbed everything to her.**  
Gumball sighed before taking a sip of water and answering the call. There was a moment of silence.  
“S-So… Is it true…?” Penny’s voice was raspy and soft, indicating that she had been crying.  
“I guess,” Gumball had felt horrible immediately. “It’s some sort of disease.”  
“I… remember Darwin mentioned a name… I read up on it and-“  
“I know, I know…”  
Another moment of silence.  
“ _You know I love you, right?_ ” Her words made Gumball flinch.  
“Yeah.”  
“Do… Do you know who it is…?”  
“No...”  
Hearing the front door close, out of the corner of his eye Gumball could see Darwin walking into the living room. The two made eye contact before Gumball motioned towards his phone to indicate what took him so long. Darwin nodded and sat down on the couch.  
“Gumball… I… I’m not mad at you,” Penny’s voice came through the phone again. “You can’t control how you feel about someone… To be honest…? I’m more worried about your condition.”  
“I assure you, I’m fine. It’s not too serious now and it never will be. You don’t have to worry about me.”  
Penny sighs.  
“If you find out who it is, I’m sure me and Darwin would be more than glad to help you get together with them.”  
“Okay I just- Don’t want you to worry.” Gumball mumbled before coughing up a few petals and taking another sip of his water.  
Penny sighs again.  
“Alright… I have to go, but I’ll talk to you later… okay?”  
Gumball nods as if she were there before letting out a small “okay” in response.  
“Love you.”  
“Love you too.” Gumball hangs up the phone and puts it in his pocket. He walks into the living room and sits down on the couch next to Darwin.  
“I’m guessing that was Penny?”  
“Yeah.”  
The two were silent.  
“Hey, Gumball?” Darwin looked up at his older brother before the two made eye contact.  
“I was doing some thinking. About who all this is about.” Darwin seemed uncomfortably serious, an extreme rarity from him. “With the timing and everything, there’s only one person I could think it is.” Gumball started to sweat.  
“It’s Rob, isn’t it?”  
Gumball looked off into the distance with wide eyes, trying to make it seem like he just had the biggest realization of his life. At the same time, though, the walls of denial he had built were crashing down. A flower petal started to peak from the side of his mouth before he hacked up a few more, coughing harder than before, making Gumball’s throat feel raw and sore.  
“Fuck. You’re right.” Gumball leaned back into the couch, covering his face with his paws. “You’re so right.”  
“You know we’re gonna have to do something to set you two up, right? We can’t just leave you like this.”  
Gumball let his arms fall onto the couch.  
“There’s no point. He hates me.”  
“B-But! You said that he said you ‘drifted together’ or something!”  
“That was before I went out of my way to get him to hate me again.”  
Darwin cringed. “Well… we can still change that, right?”  
Gumball shook his head.  
“No way. He’ll never even _like_ me now.”  
Another coughing fit. Another bundle of flower petals on the floor.  
“We need to do something.”  
Gumball wiped his mouth and sighed. “Yeah.”  
“If we hurry, we could probably find him out and about.”  
“Y-You really want me to confess to him today!?”  
“We need to try something! And you don’t have any ideas, do you?”  
Gumball sat in thought for a moment. He really didn’t have a clue what to do here. Any situation he came up with in his head always lead to rejection.  
“No.” Gumball sounded defeated, he really wanted to delay this, just so he didn’t have to face the possibility of being rejected.  
“Well come on, then. We’ll go see if we can find him.”

The two had walked around town for what seemed like forever, and no matter where they went, no sign of Rob. They almost gave up hope, until they spotted the cyclops boy sitting alone under a tree in the park, probably daydreaming about something. Darwin motioned for Gumball to go talk to him, staying off to the side where he was out of the two’s sight.  
“H-Hey, Rob!” Gumball tried his best to sound friendly and hide the anxiety boiling inside of him. “Can… Can I sit here?” He motioned towards the area next to Rob.  
“Sure, whatever.” Rob seemed unmoved, as if they never really even became nemeses again. Gumball’s heart practically beat out of his chest. Since when did Rob do this to him? Gumball coughed into his arm, a couple flower petals showing up on the sleeve of his sweater. Gumball tried his best to act like it didn’t happen.  
“Did - _Did you just cough up flower petals?_ ” Oh God. Of course Rob had to notice.  
“Oh, that? It’s nothing, I swear…” Gumball was visibly sweating.  
“Gumball. There’s obviously something wrong if you’re _coughing up flowers._ ”  
Gumball tried to look away from Rob, avoiding eye contact so maybe he didn’t have to respond. His face turned red as he could feel Rob’s hand move onto his.  
“Listen. I know I said I’d hate you forever and everything, but this is concerning. And I’m not gonna lie, it was pretty heat-of-the-moment when I said that anyway. I - honestly - can’t bring myself to hate you – just… you can tell me whatever… this… is.”  
Gumball took a deep breath.  
“Hanahaki Disease.” He spoke sternly. “It’s where someone… _likes_ … someone else, but feels the person doesn’t love them back so much that they start coughing up flower petals. It all just gets worse and worse until the flowers take over and…” Gumball couldn’t finish, but Rob knew exactly where he was going.  
Gumball started to panic. It was so obvious he had feelings for Rob now. To make matters worse, he started having another coughing fit, petals falling either on his lap or onto the surrounding grass.  
“Hey- Hey- It’s okay…” Rob patted the cat-boy’s back in an attempt to comfort him as he coughed. Gumball’s coughing started to slow down, giving him time to catch his breath and get any excess petals. He was still panicking, though, hugging himself tightly and feeling tears form on the sides of his eyes.  
“I… I’m sure the person likes you. You just gotta let them know how you feel.”  
Gumball rubbed his eyes and looked up at Rob, almost immediately having to look away before he got too flustered again. He sniffled and let out a small chuckle. Rob really didn’t get it? Gumball thought he’d be let down by now, sitting alone, crying and hacking up flowers, but no. Here he was, so close and yet so far from what he wanted. What he _needed_. He let out a breath and looked Rob in the eye.  
“Rob…” Gumball’s voice was quiet and raspy, barely audible. Gumball flinched as he finished his sentence. “ _I love you._ ”  
“I-“ Gumball couldn’t finish before Rob chuckled and pulled him into a tight hug.  
“You could’ve told me sooner.” Rob was unusually quiet with his speaking. Gumball could feel himself start to cough again, this time all the petals in him rising up and coming out. This was it. This was the end of the disease. Rob didn’t care that he was getting covered in petals. He just wanted Gumball to feel safe and loved. After all the flower petals had come out, after nothing was left, all that Gumball could do is cry. He could barely remember being this happy. He leaned into Rob and sighed before going back into quiet, happy sobs.  
“God. I love you so much.”


End file.
